Come Home
by mirajens
Summary: And so they learn the art of letting go. They don't have a choice. —NaruHina, Love And Misadventure AU


**Note:** Soooo. This is supposed to be a thing from Love and Misadventure (for those of you who aren't familiar with it, it's my Naruto!HS AU). I lost considerable muse for it since the canon pairings were announced so I thought I'd post this instead. I never got to the point of the story where the friends find out that Hinata's been battling leukemia. But yeah. Here's this.

**Disclaimer:** Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto.

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><p><strong>Come Home<strong>

by _mirajens_

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He dreaded opening the door to Hinata's hospital room, afraid he would not like what he found on the other end of it. Usually, he never did. Hinata always looked like death, and Naruto feared that one day, she wouldn't just look it. One day, after rounding up the courage to slide open the stark white door that matched the stark white walls, he would find the bed cleaned out and his amour would not be in a better place. It gave him anxiety. It gave him an ulcer that felt like a cancer that felt like a train wreck and Jesus God, he wanted this deluge of emotion to stop.

But Naruto had never been a particularly sanguine person, so what was left but to endure?

He counted to ten. Hinata always said things would get better after ten heartbeats, and while she wasn't right, it was a nice mantra to delude himself with.

_One, two, three_. Hinata was diagnosed with cancer.

_Four, five, six_. It had been terminal since half a year ago.

_Seven, eight nine_. She had a couple of weeks left, at most.

_Ten_. Every moment could be the last.

With trembling hands, Naruto slipped the door open, and let out a sigh of relief. Hinata was there, looking time-worn and vulnerable, but there was a slow rise and fall under the blankets that signaled a beating heart. Withered, but still working.

Thank God.

Every day he bought a fresh bouquet of flowers. Her favorites were white lilies, so that was what Naruto got her, never mind that they smelled like death and goodbyes.

Hinata was so thin now, and that was a fact that mercilessly shattered Naruto's heart. She had always been slim, but now she was ridiculously skinny. Her knees were knobby, and her face was gaunt. The skin over her bones was pasty and almost translucent. He saw blue, paper thin veins trailing on the back of her hand like a map and he barely resisted tracing over it and he had to wonder how easily it must have been for the nurses to stick a needle into them. She was sick. That had been painfully evident since she came to their school. Still, she was beautiful. Maybe it was only Naruto's unshakable dedication to his love that made him think that.

It was not a completely hopeless situation, they both knew that. The world was so full of modern technology to even lighten the load but Hinata was as stubborn as she was ill. She full out refused the treatments, saying that she was a lost cause just because some stupid doctor said she wasn't responding to treatment anymore. It broke his heart and angered him on equal levels. How could she just give up on life when he loved her so much the thought of her gone left him miserable for days.

He knew that the doctors only gave her long enough to experience happiness with her friends. To spend time with her father who had always been absent and with the sister that imposed a distance between them. To perhaps let go of the vestiges of regret and sadness in her heart.

To say goodbye.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat and sat on the chair by her bed. "Hi, Hinata-chan." He called out softly, testing to see if she would wake up today, or sleep through the day as was common nowadays.

The Hyuuga princess opened her eyes, and smiled like nothing was wrong. Brittle and weak, she might have been, but her smile's shine did not decimate a bit. Seeing it transported Naruto back into happier days where this sickness did not bear down his feelings.

"Are those flowers for me?" she asked, pleasure coloring her tone.

Naruto smiled, grateful for even these tiny moments, even as the impending doom weighed on him. "They always are. How are you today?"

"It's not a good day." Hinata turned to look out the window, the best view from the hospital money could afford."Everything hurts and I don't want to go through this anymore, Naruto-kun."

The grief he never quite knew how to deal with dug holes into him, little poison punctures that made breathing difficult; impossible sometimes. "Don't die on me, Hinata-chan." he sobbed, heart rendering in two when she shook her head and smiled. "Please."

"You know I'm not going to make promises I cannot keep." was her blithe reply, easy as the wind that blew through her open window.

She closed her eyes, and for a moment Naruto believed she was gone until he heard her soft breathing.

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><p><strong>AN: <strong>*heavy sigh*


End file.
